Anglo-Celtic

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Anglo-Celtic is a racial or cultural category, used primarily in Australia to describe people of British or Irish descent. To a much lesser degree the term is also used in New Zealand and Canada. Approximately 85% of Australians, ^[1] and 70% of Canadians could be or are self classified by this definition.

Anglo-Celtic is different to Anglo-Saxon as Anglo in the former term refers to English or British people, whereas the latter term is a collective term for ancient Angles, Saxons and Jutes and their subsequent political amalgamation into a single political entity by Alfred the Great.^[2]^[3]^[4] Some also incorrectly affirm that Anglo-Saxon implies an English person as opposed to the name of the people and culture derived from the Germanic migrations to Britain in the 5th - 6th centuries AD.

In Australia it is often used to describe Australians, but is also applicable to people in other countries with large numbers of people of British and Irish descent. Perhaps the most notable example is secessionists in the Southern United States such as the League of the South, whose mission statement is "to protect the historic Anglo-Celtic core culture of the South because the Scots, Irish, Welsh, and English have given Dixie its unique institutions and civilization" ^[5] Skippy Australian, is a term coined by the Greek-Australian comedy show Acropolis Now to refer to Anglo-Celtic Australians.

[edit] References

^ Population characteristics: Ancestry of Australia's population from Australian Social Trends, 2003. Retrieved 01 September 2006.
^ Who were the Anglo-Saxons, and what was Old English?. From Anglo-Saxons.net. Retrieved 01 September 2006.
^ Rulers: Anglo-Saxons from Anglo-Saxons.net. Retrieved 01 September 2006.
^ NB. The OED defines an Anglo-Saxon as: English Saxon, Saxon of England: orig. a collective name for the Saxons of Britain as distinct from the ‘Old Saxons’ of the continent. Hence, properly applied to the Saxons (of Wessex, Essex, Middlesex, Sussex, and perhaps Kent), as distinct from the Angles.
^ The League of the South’s Position on Preserving Traditional Southern Culture from Texas League of the South. Retrieved 01 September 2006.